Andrea S. James

Category: Photos

We love consistency but need change: Voila, the seasons

My old alarm clock went off this morning before my mobile phone did. That’s odd, I thought as I scrambled over to shut the thing up.

The dumb alarm clock — as in, not smart like my phone — is the backup alarm, the one that will faithfully and annoyingly beep at me at 3:30 a.m. no matter what, and has zero risk of downloading a faulty software upgrade at midnight.

Why didn’t my mobile phone wake me first, as it was programmed to? And then I realized: It’s an hour earlier than I thought. My mobile phone knew that today was time change day. And so did all of my laptops.

I was left to marvel at two things.

1) My time-keeping technology can be broken down into smart and dumb depending upon whether they know to adjust the time. (Darn you microwave!)

2) Does it amaze you that nearly all of American society adjusts the time by one hour twice per year? And the fact that a couple of states have chosen to opt out makes it even more hilarious.

Can you imagine how this would appear to an outsider? Humans are such kooks.

It’s kind of whimsical though — so much of America has been homogenized for maximum efficiency. This is a ridiculous tradition that continues because we lack the ability to fight the inertia to change it.

Season changes are delightful. The time change is silly, but somewhat delightful in its whimsy — an aberration more reliable than a snow day. They remind me of this passage from C.S. Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters.”

Here, one of the devil’s minions is educating a junior minion about human kind. Their purpose is to destroy joy and promote anguish, but to do so, the junior minion must first understand how humans are created. In the context of this book, “the Enemy” is God.

The horror of the Same Old Thing is one of the most valuable passions we have produced in the human heart — an endless source of heresies in religion, folly in counsel, infidelity in marriage, and inconstancy in friendship. The humans live in time, and experience reality successively. To experience much of it, therefore, they must experience many different things; in other words, they must experience change. And since they need change, the Enemy (being a hedonist at heart) has made change pleasurable to them, just as He has made eating pleasurable. But since He does not wish them to make change, any more than eating, an end it itself, He has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm. He gives them the seasons, each season different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an immemorial theme.

. . . If we neglect our duty, men will not be only contented but transported by the mixed novelty and familiarity of snowdrops this January, sunrise this morning, plum pudding this Christmas. Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeed hopscotch as regularly as autumn follows summer.

May we never get so tired of life that the seasonal changes fail to delight us.

(This post is filled with photos taken by me in the past month in Seattle and its environs. Click any photo to see a larger version.)

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November 6, 2011
Simple life lessons: Following a leadership pattern
It’s not easy being out in front.

I first learned this when I did investigative reporting. Even though I knew my information was sound and that my story was true, I got a nervous feeling in my stomach the night before the newspaper published a scoop. Because I knew that no one else had the information, I knew that it would surprise people, I knew humanity’s tendency to blame the messenger, and I knew that extra attention can be exciting but it is also deeply stressful.

The thing is though, someone has got to lead. Why not me? Why not you? Why not my company? Why not yours?

But there’s truth to the other side too — someone has got to follow. And there can be honor in following. A considered life will have periods of both.

Three kitchen-table anecdotes illustrate my point:
- 1) Ice Cream Shop
Opening up an ice cream shop in my neighborhood seems like a no-brainer strategy. My neighborhood is filled with kids and playgrounds and affluent families. And yet, we didn’t have an ice cream shop for years.

Last year, Menchies opened a buffet-style frozen yogurt shop on the main thoroughfare. The place is crowded day and night. That was smart. Why didn’t anyone think of it sooner?

This year, Molly Moon’s opened another ice cream shop, blocks away.

Now I’m thinking the market might be saturated. But hat’s off to the two businesses that had the idea first. They’re already capturing some of my dollars.

Lesson: Just because no one else has done it before doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea and won’t work. It may just mean that no one else has had the moxie to try.
- 2) The Highway
Recently, I was driving on a three-lane highway, heading for Detroit airport. I had six miles to go until the turn-off to drop off my rental car.

The speed limit was 75. I noticed that the left two lanes were empty, but there was a line of cars doing 60 miles per hour in the right-most lane.

Wow. Talk about a bunch of lazy followers! I decided to join them.

For me, it was one of those rare instances when I wasn’t in a rush, and so I decided to blast my radio and get in line. So long as I maintained a safe distance from the car in front, I didn’t have to really think. It was so easy – I didn’t have to monitor my speed, merge lanes, time my lane shift, pass with care – less thinking, more singing to the radio.

Lesson: People follow for different reasons, and sometimes, it’s nice to get in line and do your part.
- 3) The Airport
This continues from the last story. I finally got to the security check point and there was a huge, messy line that was longer than the lanes delineated by the retractable tape barriers.

A view from inside Detroit Airport (DTW).

And there was a sign that announced: “Additional security check point up one level.”

About three feet to my left was the escalator. I thought, “That entrance is probably stuffed too. And if I leave to go look, I’ll lose my spot.”

Then, remembering back to all of us sheeple in the highway lanes, I decide to check it out.

No lie: There were only about five people in the line immediately up the stairs. All this time opportunity, and people were not seizing upon it!

Lesson: I work with stocks. This to me is symbolic of how markets are not always perfectly efficient — there is opportunity out there, if you think to seize it. But, it carries risk. Same with life. While forging ahead, you could lose your place in the line. But, the line will always be there waiting to take you back – so why not try?

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September 22, 2011
September 11, 2001 – September 11, 2011

I grew up in New Jersey on Monmouth Bay, near the Keyport docks, across from which the Twin Towers stood.

When the attacks happened, I was in Washington, D.C., attending college.

I’m mourning today. But, I’ll be flying.

I’ve had this web site in some form or another since 2000. Here is what I posted a week after the attacks in 2001. This was before I knew I wanted to write for a living, before I knew whom I would marry, before I knew, really, much of anything. I had freshly turned 20.

When I read my old post, I feel sort of tender about it. I detect a loss of innocence that was shared by a nation.

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September 11, 2011
Nothing to see here, for Seattleites only

How droll, I’m going to talk about our soggy weather.

If you’re visiting from outside of Seattle, all you need to know is that it always rains here. Nothing else worth reading. No really, this blog post is super boring.

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September 9, 2011
An illustration: Smart phone goes here

Over at GeekWire today, Mónica Guzmán talks about how she bravely left behind her smart phone on her summer vacation. It’s well worth a read.

One of her sentences, referring to her interactions with her husband, made me laugh out loud:

It’s not reasonable to tweet while he’s asking me a question (“Sorry, what?”) or to make my phone an honorary utensil on foodie nights out.

This image popped into my head instantly of the smart phone that’s never more than an arm’s reach away. So, I decided to illustrate it. Crudely.

Voila:

——
——

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September 8, 2011
Vacation for Americans means working from somewhere else

Checking in on the U.S. stock market from the Canary Island of Tenerife, a Spanish territory off the west coast of Africa. (Photo by Andrea James)

I’m just back from a lovely holiday in Europe. My husband and I try to get out of the country at least once, if not twice, per year.

This year, we attended a wedding in the Irish countryside, swam in the Atlantic off of the Canary Islands and shared a pint with friends at a Dublin pub. (Well, I had a proper Irish coffee with whiskey instead.)

I am a stock analyst and about 50% of my job is staying on top of current events. It is not the sort of occupation where you can just check out for 10 days. (Or, as it happened thanks to Hurricane Irene and flight cancellations across the Eastern seaboard, we were gone 12 days.)

Plus, I had a company that scheduled an earnings announcement after my trip was booked. Which means I’d be working at least a day-and-a-half abroad.

This was my dilemma: How do I ensure a reliable Internet connection abroad?

I wanted to check in on my stocks and the news at least once per day. Plus, it’s easier to relax if you’ve made sure that the business world isn’t blowing up on you. But I dreaded searching for WiFi hotspots, paying hidden fees, troubleshooting various networks. What a stressful mess when I’m supposed to be on vacation.

The bed & breakfast inns where we stayed did not have WiFi connections. (I can just imagine our Irish hosts wondering about these crazy always-working Americans!)

My friend recommended XCom Global‘s Mifi hotspot, and so I decided to give it a try. It worked so well, that I have to recommend it*.

XCom Global's mifi hotspot device is the size of my hand

I phoned them up on a Friday, and by Monday morning, they had FedEx’d me a little device that easily fit into my carry-on luggage. Also included was a FedEx return envelope for post-trip.

Once abroad, I turned it on, connected to the WiFi hotspot and voila!

Instant high-speed Internet. Every day. Even when we were stranded at two airports because of the hurricane, I could plop down in a seat and pull out the device to check on flight connections and reservations.

The Internet was fast enough that I was able to use Google Voice from the Canary Islands, which are off the west coast of Africa. I asked a question on the earnings conference call without paying exorbitant fees to use my cell phone.

It cost me $25 per day, for about $250 total for 10 days. That includes the optional insurance on the device. There was no limit on my Internet usage, which is desirable for uploading vacation photos whilst downloading up-to-the-minute stock market data. Thumbs up.

*I am receiving zero compensation for this post. The company doesn’t know I’m writing it.

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August 29, 2011
Don’t be paralyzed by imperfection

When is a product finished?

It’s certainly not when it is perfect.

Perfection is unachievable. Holding out for it wastes time. The longer you wait, the more your product loses its value.

This is why media criticism is too easy. With media, the value of the product diminishes in minutes. It’s better to produce an imperfect article sooner, rather than a more perfect article later.

With airplanes, the timeline changes. Boeing has faced numerous delays with its 787 airplane program. On some level, the delays are worth the wait, because although there is diminishing value with time, the customers demand a safety level that is closer to perfection.

In the content production business (news, analysis, software design, Web design) — editing, correction, guidance and oversight help you to minimize mistakes. They help you to preserve value and reduce time.

Always remember: edits are not insults. They create value.

Here’s my crude chart to illustrate my point. You need to find the sweet spot of perfection versus value. Value drops over time. Perfection increases over time.

This is an imperfect analogy, of course. (Theme alert: I didn’t spend a lot of time on it.)

Thinking about this helps me to not be paralyzed by imperfection.

April 9, 2011
A Seattle transplant reminisces about swimming pools

Springtime is trickling into the Pacific Northwest — with sunbursts between raindrops. The days lengthen as sunset arcs toward 10 p.m.

This is me, a budding Seattleite, sunning by the pool on a recent Mexico vacation

I love this time of year. It means summer is coming — and summer in Seattle is a beauty.

But there’s one thing I really miss about summers here:

Pools.

As summer approached as a kid, I would daydream about which pool I wanted to jump into first. I would examine my pool options, imagining the perfect concrete-to-grass-to-foliage ratio. Too many trees make shadows in the pool. Too much concrete makes the pool area uninviting.

The perfect pool experience means a blue pool liner (no cement!), surrounded by white concrete, which is surrounded by green grass, which is surrounded by trees. I liked the shouting and bustling, see-and-be-seen scene, of public pools.

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March 11, 2011
There’s no such thing as paradise on Earth

Within 24 hours of my move to the Gulf Coast in 2005, I learned this hard lesson: There is no such thing as paradise.

I moved South in pursuit of adventure and career, and to escape Northern winters.

It was only once the job had been accepted, the move made, the apartment rental deposit paid, that I realized with a sinking heart: “Wait a minute, nasty huge bugs are everywhere.”

And here I thought I’d gotten one over on the system.

Indeed, there are lots of critters in the south. The trade off for living in any tropical climate is a gecko or two on your pillow. (Geckos are some of the more delightful critters. Palmetto bugs: Not so much.)

In sub-zero-winters Minneapolis, those critters die and start afresh in spring. So, they’re always small. In the tropics, they keep growing and growing and growing.

This lesson is true of anything in life. Anything that looks perfect from far away never is so up close.

I just returned from a week vacation in Mexico. I’ve posted more than 200 photos on Facebook of my husband and I having a blast. What you won’t see? Plumbing woes, dirty air and bugs in our luggage.

Earthly perfection doesn’t exist — not in a vacation, not in a home, not in a marriage, not in a job, not in a bank account, not in a place. And that’s OK.

You can’t run from imperfection. You will simply find a different set of flaws.

Accepting this fact takes the pressure off. It lets us enjoy moments and people, with all of their buggy imperfections.

This is one of my favorite photos from Mexico. It is a cup of coffee from the El Espresso cafe in Sayulita. It almost challenges my entire thesis, as I can see lots of perfection in this latte!

February 7, 2011
Gracefully surrendering the things of youth

This picture is of my maternal grandmother. Wasn’t she a hottie?

She worked at Radio City Music Hall as a Rockette in the 1940s — drawn to New York City, like so many youth, by the lights and glamour. Her stage name was Bobbie Robinson, though her real name was Mary.

This blog post isn’t about her life, but about the passage of time.

I’ve always understood that youth and beauty are fleeting. Perhaps it is because my parents died when I was still young. The fact hits home even more so when comparing photos of my grandmother as a young dancer to those taken of her just before her death in her 80s, balding after years of using peroxide hair dye.

Thus, I’ve tried not to stake any self confidence on the things over which I have no control. Age is one of those things.

Yet, I’m not as above mourning the loss of youth as I’d thought.

Yesterday, I e-mailed an inner-circle friend and lamented that 2010 had passed without us seeing each other. (Having close friends scattered to the winds seems to be a common phenomenon for my generation.)

My friend wrote back, “I was thinking, are you doing anything fun for your 30th birthday?”

Her casual question took my breath away: This is the year that I turn 30!

This year, 2011, is also a milestone for an entire generation: the first of the Baby Boomers turn 65. As such, my New Year’s resolution doesn’t apply only to me:

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

from the Desiderata poem

Every year is a blessing. I’ve had a blast in my 20s — I set upon them with the motto that they would be mostly about my own personal growth, about chasing adventures, about discovering the world. I always joked, “I’ll give back to society in my 30s.” (I never really even thought about my 40s, they seemed so far away.)

Well, here we are then. It’s okay to briefly mourn what is lost, but we must also keep an eye on what we’ve gained.

I have much to look forward to. Apparently, happiness increases after age 46 and continues to climb after that. From the most recent Economist:

Older people have fewer rows and come up with better solutions to conflict. They are better at controlling their emotions, better at accepting misfortune and less prone to anger.

May we all face the future with optimism and grace.

Happy 2011, friends.

January 2, 2011